Google yanks Android update for Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus

Over the weekend our Dear Leader kindly informed me that it would probably be a good idea to do a brief review of Google’s first OTA Ice Cream Sandwich update. Usually when Fudo says something would be a good idea, it is more like a Papal bull, or a fatwa, but not this time around.

Google has pulled the plug on the Android 4.0.3. OTA update for the Nexus S and, of course, it won’t be showing up for the Galaxy Nexus either. Even users who managed to download the update are now reporting that the installation is refusing to cooperate.

It seems the release is quite buggy and users who have managed to get Google’s official ICS release running on their Nexus S are reporting some serious battery drain issues. This seems to be a trend in the mobile industry, as both Apple’s iPhone 4S and Nokia’s flagship Lumia 800 faced similar issues.

So where does this leave us? Well, it leaves me without a phone update and it leaves our readers without two reviews, one of ICS on the old Nexus S, which would be a nice benchmark for users of single-core Android phones, but secondly we are now also stuck with a Galaxy Nexus review sample sans 4.0.3 update, which has also been delayed.

Of course, it is relatively easy to install ICS manually, go for a custom ROM or whatnot, but that’s beside the point. In fact, one of the main reasons people buy Nexus phones in the first place is because of regular updates out of the box, something that users of other Android phones can hardly count on.

Google is not saying when the official updates will roll out, again, but we believe the issues could be resolved soon.